


Water of the Lethe

by photobookbee



Series: Writing Prompts [2]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Childhood Friends, Fountain of Youth, Gen, Platonic Hand Holding, Writing Exercise, writing prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28991751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/photobookbee/pseuds/photobookbee
Summary: Hilton is a miserable little town, but even it has its bright spots. One of the biggest being the Annual Hilton Gymnastics Camp. Jessie is a volunteer at said camp, but she is so clumsy that she has been forbidden from doing any demonstrations. Her friend Alice loves to make fun of her for it. Together, they are going to run the blow-up obstacle course, but what starts out as a fun day is not going to end well.
Relationships: Original Character & Original Character
Series: Writing Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126214
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Water of the Lethe

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt from the Amazing Story Generator by Jason Sacher.
> 
> The prompt is:
> 
> "While searching for a runaway child" "a clumsy gymnast" "Stumbles upon the fountain of youth"

Jessie Richards was freaking out. She was in charge of looking after the kids at the 2018 Holton Gymnastics Camp. This was her first summer volunteering, but she was not able to do any gymnastics because she does not have very good hand-eye coordination. 

Because of her incoordination, Jessie was assigned to watch and help the kids near the obstacle course while not doing it herself.

The first day of the camp, Jessie arrived at the park a few minutes before 8:30 to help set up the course and other booths that the gym had planned. The morning was sunny, as it usually was in Florida, but it was not scorching anyone. There were a few clouds in the sky, but shade was few and far between.

After she was done setting up the obstacle course and booths, Jessie went to help the people who were in charge of signing in the kids. Every child was given a lanyard and sticker with their name, their parents’ phone number, and the phone number of the gym. People went missing a lot in Holton, so people were always a bit paranoid.

The kids started filling in around 9:00. Their parents hung around a bit before making sure that their kids would be well taken care of. If their five or six year old child were going to spend a few hours running around without them, they wanted to make sure the child would be safe.

Jessie felt like rolling her eyes. Parents were needlessly paranoid. It did not matter if they lived in a town where disappearances were common. If they were so worried about their child disappearing, they should move away.

The flow of kids started thinning after about twenty minutes. They started being split into five groups to move through the stations. Each group had about ten kids.

Jessie did not have any kids the first round through. While she waited, she talked to her friend Alice Thorn who would be her partner for the obstacle course. Alice would be at the start of the course, and make sure that only one kid went in at a time. Jessie would be at the end of the course to make sure the kids got through, and to take their times to mark them on a board. At the end of the week, whoever got the quickest times would get a secret prize.

Their first group of kids were not bad. They followed their instructions, and many of them were energetic and strong enough to get through the course fairly quickly. No one cut in line, and no arguments broke out.

The second and third groups were similar, but the fourth and fifth groups were tired and grumpy which led to some arguments and cutting in line. 

Overall, the day was fun, and there were no major injuries. Some of the kids were brats, but most of them were sweet. There were a few who seemed to have caught the eye of the gymnastics instructor. Those kids would probably be looking for offers for a scholarship in gymnastics classes.

All of the stations shut down around lunch, so the kids could go home and do something with their afternoon. As the parents were picking up the kids, Jessie and Alice took down the obstacle course.

“This was a lot more boring than I thought it would be,” Alice said as she blew some sweaty hair out of her face.

“No kidding. I was expecting the kids to whine a bit more. Especially because they had to deal with all of the security. Who has this much security in a gymnastics camp in a public park?”

“Hilton.”

“Amen. Also, if you were so bored, why didn’t you volunteer to demonstrate or just do some flips for fun?” Jessie said as she finished packing up.

“I thought the kids would ask why I tumbled around and you didn’t. I didn’t want to admit that you had the honor of being so famous for being clumsy that you were specifically asked by the boss to not do any tricks, while I must be an average volunteer who can flip around and only fail half the time.” Alice fluttered her eyelashes, looking like the picture of innocence.

Jessie gave into her urge to roll her eyes. “Dubious honor and infamous are more like it. I have been taking these classes since I was five, yet the kids who are currently five are better than I am.”

“Did you start out talented and just get worse?”

“I was pretty good until puberty. It was like one of those torture machines that takes your limbs and stretches them apart.” Jessie stretched her arms out to demonstrate. Then, she helped Alice pick up the boxes where the obstacles were put in, and the friends brought it to the front area. 

The girls were surprised to find everyone freaking out. 

Mrs. Pinam, the boss of the volunteers, ran over to them to ask, “Have either of you seen Martin Greene? His parents have shown up and we can’t find him. His group leader said he’d last been seen near the tumble station.”

Both Alice and Jessie answered in the negative. Jessie reached over to grab Alice’s hand, who squeezed it in comfort.

If they could not find the kid, not only would another child of Hilton be missed, but the gym might get in trouble for losing the child. Who knows whether they would be able to have another camp or even classes. Paranoia, guilt, and desperation did not make a good combination for grieving parents. They would need to take their anger off on someone, and it would most likely be the gym and the volunteers.

“Maybe he just wandered off. We can look through the woods,” Alice offered.

Mrs. Pinam looked between the two girls with fear and hope in her eyes. “I hope you're right about him wandering off, but I’m not sure how comfortable I am with sending you two off into the woods when a child has gone missing.”

“No offense to the child in question,” Jessie jumped in, “but the two of us are much older and have our phones. We can at least do our part to look.”

“Just… Just don’t go too far. And stick together. Hilton has already lost enough before today,” Mrs. Pinam stammered out. She was looking at them like it would be the last time she was able to do so. 

Jessie and Alice nodded and turned towards the forest; their hands were linked still. Neither of them wanted to lose the other. They knew it was unlikely that they would, but both still felt like clinging to the other.

They walked through the woods for about half an hour. Neither of them had said anything other than pointing out a direction to the other or yelling out for Martin. The tension between them only rose.

Then, Alice’s stomach growled.

Jessie jumped, and, in the process, she let go of Alice’s hand; tripped over a branch; and fell into the bushes. “I’m okay!” she yelled.

“You better be!”

Jessie stood up with sticks in her hair and mud on her legs. She caught her friend’s eye, and the two of them burst out laughing.

“Did my stomach scare you, little miss clumsy?”

“How can I be sure you're not hungry enough to eat me?”

“You’re too skinny and lanky. Not enough meat.”

Jessie finished her giggles and turned serious. “Should we go back? We are both hungry, and they might have found Martin by now. Don’t want them to worry.”

Alice seemed to debate with herself. She turned towards the way they came, then the way they were going, and to a seemingly random direction. “My phone says that over there”- she pointed towards the random direction- “is a path that will lead us back to the field, but in a longer way. We could go there and get back for food and info, but we can still check out more places just in case.”

Jessie thought for a moment and finally said, “I do not think your stomach will appreciate that idea, but a kid is missing, so, yeah, better safe than sorry.”

The two of them turned towards the direction Alice had pointed out. The momentary break in the silence had ended, and it was a lot more uncomfortable now. Neither of them took the other’s hand.

Suddenly, Jessie stopped. “Did you hear that?”  
Alice paused, obviously a little creeped. “Are we in a horror movie? No, I did not hear anything.”

“Are you sure? Because I am certain I heard something over there.” Jessie pointed towards a direction off of the path.

“I really hope we are not in a horror movie.”

“You have to admit, Hilton would be a good horror movie setting.”

“True. So are we going to investigate or follow the path?” Alice asked.

Jessie ignored her. Her eyes had glossed over and she was staring towards the direction her outstretched finger was still pointed towards. She took a step forward.

Alice quickly walked over to stand in front of her friend. “Okay, Jess. I am sure whatever you are hearing is just the wind. We need to get back to the field, or I may actually get hungry enough to eat you. Then it would really be a horror movie,” Alice trailed off. She was seriously freaked out now.

Jessie looked towards Alice for a second, briefly making eye contact, before turning back. She broke off into a sprint. Running across the forest, jumping over large sticks or rocks with a grace she did not normally possess. Alice’s yells from behind her were overtaken by the overwhelming sound. The sound which was slowly resembling screaming children.

Jessie could not tell if the screams were of joy or fear, and that thought stopped her in her tracks. Unfortunately, her momentum carried her forward and she rolled all the way down the hill and into a pond she knew was not supposed to be there. That was the last coherent thought she would have for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second work in this series. I hope you enjoy it. If you see any mistakes, or have a request, comment below!
> 
> I am open to doing a sequel or follow up chapter.


End file.
